Wednesday Morning Hot Links

The Astros put the beat down on the Royals, clinching the 2015 ALDS, 15-6. Some notes:

George Springer was 1x1 with a home run, two walks, and an HBP. He was 1x1 with two walks in Monday's game. This will be a fun 60-game season if George Springer literally does not get out at the plate.

Kyle Tucker, Jack Mayfield, and Abraham Toro had doubles. Springer, Aledmys Diaz, Nick Tanielu, Alex De Goti, and Taylor Jones all hit home runs.

Enoli Paredes threw 2IP, 5H/0ER, 5K:1BB, striking out the side on 11 pitches. Reminder that 24-year old Enoli Paredes struck out 128 batters in 94IP in Fayetteville and Corpus in 2019. Paredes took the opportunity to pitch in Kansas City as an homage to Yordano Ventura. Check this article from Jake Kaplan on Paredes (and Bryan Abreu and Cristian Javier) as one of the potential breakout prospects for Houston in 2020.

Andre Scrubb struck out five batters in 1.2IP, navigating a hit and two walks.

Jojanse Torres threw 1.1IP, 3H/2ER, 0K:5BB.

Astros pitchers walked 11 batters. I know this game doesn't count, I'm trying to get back into mid-season form, but the last time the Astros that many batters in a single game was September 9, 2017, when Houston pitchers walked 13 in an 11-1 loss to Oakland. The last time the Astros walked that many batters and still won was on June 11, 1994 in a 7-6 win over Atlanta. There are only 16 instances in franchise history of 10+ walks and a team win. It's still 16 instances, because this game doesn't count.

Altuve and Bregman were hit by meaningless, unintentional pitches. Sorry to break it to the morons who are using the Astros to take out their frustration about absolutely everything.

*Jose Altuve left the game with a left leg contusion (bruise). Dusty Baker:
We're hopeful he'll be ready on Friday. We'll analyze him tomorrow and see where he is in the morning. Usually the day after that, you're pretty sore.

This is incredibly stupid.

*Josh James was scheduled to start yesterday's game, but the threat of inclement weather in Kansas City kept him in Houston, where he'll throw a simulated game today.

*Monday's lineup is likely going to be Friday's Opening Day lineup, with the notable switch of Bregman and Brantley in the 3-4 spots.

*I guess there are some predictions: Yahoo says Gerrit Cole will win the AL Cy Young (Verlander 2nd), and Lance McCullers may just have his "breakout year."

*Check the Astros' wallpapers available to download.

*Todd Kalas tested positive for COVID and Kevin Eschenfelder will fill in.

*ESPN: A day inside MLB's COVID protocols.

*Jayson Stark: Eight numbers that will define baseball in 2020.

*Congratulations to Alyssa Nakken on becoming the first female 1B coach in MLB history. Related: RIP, Aubrey Huff.

*Outside: The Difference Between Effort and Pain

*Marcelo Bielsa:
Being successful deforms us as human beings, it relaxes us, it plays tricks on us, it makes us worse individuals, it helps us fall in love with ourselves. Failure is the complete opposite, it forms us, it makes us more solid, it brings us closer to our convictions, it makes us more coherent.

*Vox: How Hollywood accidentally built Netflix.

*If you want to follow something super-fun today (Wednesday), check the Championship:

Leeds United has already clinched the League and promotion, but the 2nd-place team also gets automatic promotion. Here's how it stands with the last game of the season starting at 1:30pm Central Wednesday (reminder that the playoffs are 3v6, 4v5 over two legs, where the winners meet in a one-off 90-minute brawl for promotion to the Premier League):

2. West Brom (82 points) vs. Queens Park Rangers (14th place)
3. Brentford (81 points) vs. Barnsley (23rd place)
4. Fulham (80 points) at Wigan (13th place)
5. Nottingham Forest (70 points) vs Stoke City (17th place)
6. Cardiff City (70 points) vs Hull City (24th place)
7. Swansea City (67 points) at Reading (15th place)

*A Musical Selection:



It will get worse.

'Rona/Politics-Free Hot Links, Vol. 30

A quick note: I deleted Twitter from my phone (Facebook, too, for largely the same reasons I'm about to explain). I found myself constantly scrolling to see what was happening RIGHT NOW. I had to know. Everything I saw that pissed me off (which doesn't take much, to be honest) could get me so incredibly angry that I would throw my phone. It was impacting how good of a husband and father I was. I know how silly it sounds, a grown-ass man who can't handle social media, knowing all the pitfalls (and straw-men, and bad-faith arguments, and willful ignorance) that come with it, but my wife and daughter have auto-immune issues so we have basically been at home for over two months, aside from a few trips to the grocery store and driving around a little bit. I am throwing in the towel on trying to be The Most Informed Man in the World. Over the past few days, I've checked Twitter maybe twice. It has been liberating and wonderful. I finished one book, and started another. I actually used a chainsaw to trim trees in our backyard (I forgot to take off my wedding ring, though, so my ring finger is one long blister) and built a fire last night. I'm Online way too much, and I'm trying to remedy that. Online is an exhausting place, and you don't have to be there. Too much of my identity is wrapped up in Astros Twitter, and as soon as I understood the ridiculousness of that statement, I knew it was time to go for a while. There's just more to this than [waves hands] this.

Some other stuff has probably happened in the previous five days, but I wouldn't really know. And I'm okay with that. Meanwhile:

*Check out my Legit Buddy AstrosFansUK's new podcast, featuring Todd Kalas.

*McTaggart has his Top 5 Astros DHs. I guess we now live in a world where Carlos Pena's .674 OPS in 2013 doesn't exist...

*Chandler Rome: How MLB's spitting ban could affect the Astros.

*Ken Rosenthal: How Lebron James' media empire spurred Alex Bregman to leave his agent. It has to do with the upcoming documentary on the 2017 sign-stealing.

*Chris Sale: The 2017 Astros cheated, but it got blown out of proportion.

*Tim Kurkjian: Roger Clemens was a power-pitcher through and through.

*Lookit Anaheim social distancing in 1997! Well done!

The sweetest swing in MLB history 🤩#OTD 23 years ago, Ken Griffey Jr. went yard in Anaheim pic.twitter.com/SOvBAlNC64

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) May 20, 2020

*Minor-League Baseball is in crisis.

*How an 8-year old inspired the Mets' coaching staff to train for a marathon.



*ESPN's Sam Miller: Hunches, home runs, and humiliations. Nine tales of unsung World Series heroes.

*FiveThirtyEight: Andruw Jones had a damn good glove.

*This is insane:



*A few towns in Michigan are screwed.



*The All-American Nightmares of Jordan Peele.

Monday Morning Hot Links

The regular season is over, and great things have happened in it. Time has flown by, and the main event is here. But first, here's the recap the final regular season game.

So the Astros, am I right folks? They are pretty good. In fact, the favorite to win this whole thing.

MLB also posted the top 50 players in the playoffs. The Astros have 8 of them. Not bad imo.

ESPN did a roundtable discussion about some popular October questions, where they talked about who is under the most pressure, the favorites, the surprises, and everything in between.

Tickets sold quick for the ALDS. How much are they now, and when will they be playing?

It's official, the only team to sweep the Astros this year was the Reds. So when they ask who swept the 2019 World Series champions you can win that question on bar trivia night.

What's been your favorite moment from the regular season 2019?

Ryan Pressly is back baby.

Bryan Abreu may sneak onto this postseason roster if Hinch has anything to say about it.

Is this the best team Luhnow has ever constructed? Probably.

It was announced that Geoff Blum and Todd Kalas were extended through the year 2021, which is good news if you enjoy them.

Josh Reddick is heating up exactly when we need him.

Gerrit Cole has been heating up for 6 months and is also exactly where we want him to be.

We got one last regular season mailbag. ($)

Brian Wilson looks like Tim Lincecum now and its kind of offputting.

I will never hesitate to drop a brand new article about big funny birds

Saturday Morning Hot Links

I've decided to hack Astros County's hot links, because that's the kind of thing I like do (and AC really need a brake).

The Astros lost in the 13th inning. Not really in the mood to talk about that one.

Reid Ryan was inducted into the Round Rock Express Hall of Fame. He is the sixth member of said Hall of Fame.

Gerrit Cole is expected to miss only, "one start" which means he'll be available for the playoffs. In all seriousness, I like the approach the Astros have taken with injuries. The Astros have a significant lead in the division. There is no rush to get Cole or any other player that feels discomfort back into the starting lineup. I've already planned to take a week off for the day games the Astros will play in the division series.

Rogelio Armenteros will start Saturday's contest against the A's. He'll make one start and be sent back down. Martin Maldonado is expected to catch.

Hinch on Armenteros:
“He’s thrown very well. Righties [perform] better than lefties against [the A's] lineup, and we think he’s the right option for us.”

Armenteros has allowed 8 ER in 14.1 innings since being sent down. Six of those came in his July 28th start, in which he only lasted 2 innings. In the last two games he's allowed 2 ER over 12.1 innings.

While putting this post together the below poll was thrown up on the broadcast. I'll take Jose Altuve all day. ALL DAY!

Altuve's similar batters through age 28 include five Hall of Famers:

• Ryne Sandberg
• Billy Herman
• Roberto Alomar
• Frankie Frisch
• Bobby Doerr

Stay tuned. 

For those curious about the other guys Hall of Famer similarity batter scores through similar age:

• George Springer - 0
• Carlos Correa - 3
• Alex Bregman - 2

"The Astros represent the promise land, the big rock candy mountain of baseball," according to the New York Times and Asher Wojciechowski. Wade Miley, A-a-ron Sanchez, and Zach Greinke weigh in on the Astros revolution. 

Here's a money quote from Miley, “I checked the data and it was spinning faster and it had more break on it. It’s amazing.”

During the broadcast Todd Kalas mentioned that Justin Verlander needed 73 strikeouts to get 3000 strikeouts this year (he had four strikeouts into the game at this point). With eight more starts he has a chance. 

 

He finished the night with strikeouts. Prior to tonight, Verlander has a 2.65 ERA and 84 strikeouts at The Coliseum. 

More stats from last night's game (Geoff Blum and Todd Kalas are great!). 

Altuve and Correa being healthy helps this team go deep into the playoffs. The fact that Correa is hitting 6th is crazy!

The dude that lit up the radar game and signed with the A's, struck out the side in his organizational debut. 

Beyond the Box Score looked at Bregman's strikezone. Un-surprisingly, he's pretty good at identifying pitches out of the zone. 

USA Today does an article on the talent that never made an impression on Houston. J.D. Davis and Ramon Laureano are highlighted in this article. This is what happens when you've got talent out the wazoo. 

Keep an eye out for Jojanse Torres. He's currently at the Fatetteville affiliate. 

Nerd links:

Ewan McGregor is in in negotiations to reprise his roles as Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

How to use Google for Open Source Intelligence. You Already do a lot of this. Learn how to be better. 

Thursday Morning Hot Links

*James Paxton is a very good pitcher who has, this season, owned the Astros. That doesn't mean the Astros are deficient or poorly built or anything negative. Sometimes you just run into a really good pitcher, he handles you, and you go about your off-day before embarking on a nine-game road trip. It was the Astros' first series loss since June 16-18 (Boston). The Astros are 63-32, with a 15.5-game lead with 67 games remaining. After today there are just seven off-days left in the regular season.

*James Paxton vs Houston, 2017: 20IP, 12H/1ER, 20K:4BB. 0.45 ERA/0.80 WHIP. Hinch:
We swung the bats fairly well early and hit a couple of balls hard and didn't really push anything across, but he's really good. His arm strength is at the top end of left-handed starters in the league. 

Catcher Mike Zunino, on Paxton:
He's obviously got swing-and-miss stuff and they're a free-swinging team. He's got enough stuff to miss bats and that's a good combination against those guys.

Do you want to tell Zunino that the Astros have the fewest strikeouts in all of baseball? Or that they rank 23rd in overall swing%? Or should I?

*There are twenty pitchers who have thrown at least 10IP against the Astros this season. Five of them have an ERA under 3.00:
James Paxton - 0.45
Ervin Santana - 2.08
Jason Vargas - 2.45
Sean Manaea - 2.70
Ricky Nolasco - 2.77

But nine of those twenty have an ERA over 5.00. So.

*Guillermo Heredia made the defensive play of the game, getting George Springer at third.

*AL West, last 30 games:
Houston: 19-11
Seattle: 16-14
Oakland: 16-14
Anaheim: 14-16
Arlington: 13-17

*Off-Day Playoff Odds check:
FanGraphs (102-60): 100% to win division, 15.8% to win the World Series
FiveThirtyEight (104-58): >99% to win division, 22% to win the World Series
Baseball Prospectus (102-60): 100% to win division, 19.1% to win the World Series.

*Carlos Correa's surgery was successful, and Alex Bregman will be playing Shortstop this weekend at Baltimore. Here's Correa's Instagram post from the hospital room, post-op.

*Dallas Keuchel described the last seven weeks as "a mini-offseason." He will make one more rehab start on Saturday before - ideally - rejoining the rotation the following week, probably against Detroit. Keuchel:
I fully expect this to be the last one if everything checks off and it goes as planned.

*Will Harris can be activated from the DL tomorrow, but he'll play catch for the first time since going on the DL instead. Harris:
I don't feel it at all. It's only been throwing the ball, and trying to throw the ball with some effort, that's causing my problems. 

Hmm. Given that he's a pitcher on a Major League Baseball team, he should probably wait until it doesn't hurt to throw with effort to come back.

*The Astros are still among the teams interested in Detroit's Justin Wilson.

*Jerry Crasnick writes about what the Dodgers and Astros might do at the Trade Deadline (now 11 days away). An AL Talent Evaluator:
Knowing what I know about Jeff, there are some serious aggressive machinations to find that starter or bullpen guy.

A scout:
Do you give up Kyle Tucker or Francis Martes for a small, marginal difference in that Game 3? I don't know. Do you give it up to get Britton? Maybe you do.

There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth on The Twitters yesterday as everyone caught up to the idea of the Diamondbacks trading for J.D. Martinez and the Yankees trading for a new 1B and two good relievers, all after the Cubs went out and got Jose Quintana. But please do keep in mind that none of those teams are leading their division and are trying to get into the playoffs via the Wild Card. That's obviously not a position they share with the Astros (see: Off-Day Playoff Odds check, above). Those teams need the two-ish weeks before the deadline to give themselves a leg up on their opponents to get into the playoffs, because those days could be the difference in playing in the Wild Card game and making golf plans on October 2. The Astros are looking for the right guy(s) to get them to the World Series. There's a vastly different philosophy between the two situations.

You run the possibility of another team being more aggressive and dealing for the guy(s) the Astros want, but it's not as though any of these trades happen in a vacuum. Let's say the Astros have been engaging the A's on Sonny Gray for weeks, months even. If the Brewers come in and offer something slightly better, Billy Beane is going to call Luhnow and say "Think you can offer something better than this deal?" Everyone knows the strength of the Astros' farm system. Oakland will play the teams against each other to get the best possible deal. There is never an actual Mystery Team.

*What is Sonny Gray really worth?

*Kyle Tucker is David Schoenfield's pick for Houston's untouchable player.

*Corpus' Alex Winkelman came within an out of no-hitting Frisco last night. Some Rangers' Double-A jacknut Marwin'd a pitch right up the middle. Winkelman went 8.2IP, 1H/0ER, 6K:2BB for his first Double-A win.

*Ryne Birk was promoted from Buies Creek to Corpus, and J.D. Davis was promoted to Fresno as Colin Moran figures to spend the rest of the season in Houston.
Birk (13th Round - 2016) was hitting .274/.340/.430 for BCA while Davis was hitting .279/.340/.510 with a Texas League-leading 21 home runs. 


*Ronnie Dawson, Josh Rojas, and Daz Cameron beat the dog piss out of Lansing, 20-3. After getting off to a slow start this season, Cameron is hitting .379/.433/.672 in July.

*Here's a cool profile from Philly.com on Todd Kalas.

*Kris Bryant is the latest superstar to hurt his finger on a head-first slide.

*In his 2nd PA for his new team, J.D. Martinez was hit on the hand by a pitch.

Friday Morning Hot Links

*Cockroach makes his long-awaited return to Astros County by making a case for Jose Quintana.

*Houston native Todd Kalas will replace Bill Brown in the broadcast booth this season. Kalas has spent the last 19 years as the Rays' play-by-play man and is the son of legendary broadcaster Harry Kalas.

*Corpus' Brendan McCurry was suspended 50 games after testing positive for meth (!). McCurry was acquired by Oakland in the Jed Lowrie trade - no, the second one - and split time between Corpus and Fresno. In 82IP McCurry allowed a 3.07 ERA/1.17 WHIP with 94 strikeouts.

*George Springer is still deciding on whether or not he'll play in the World Baseball Classic. Springer:
It'll obviously be an honor to play for whoever it is (Springer can play for USA or Puerto Rico), but at the same time my first commitment is the Houston Astros and the 25 guys who are going to be in that clubhouse. 

*There are 95 known HOF ballots (about 21%) and Jeff Bagwell has appeared on 87 (92%) of them, having picked up five of the 12 ballots he needs to get that 75%.

*The wait is over: The Indians have signed Edwin Encarnacion to a 3yr/$60m deal (max deal is 4yrs/$80m with option/buyout). That's a lot shorter of a deal, and a lot cheaper of a deal, than I - and probably most people - were expecting. As we get closer to the start of the season, we'll be looking at how the Astros stack up (on paper) against the major AL contenders. As of right now I'd have the Astros up against the Indians, Red Sox, and Rangers in the top four in the American League. The Rangers could field a team of 12 blind guys, 10 cats, and three random kids from Forney and I'd still think "Yeah, but Banister sure can get something out of that team."

*Jeff Sullivan: Pitch framing was doomed from the start.

*Jerry Crasnick: Did Curt Schilling tweet his way out of Cooperstown?

*The Yankees and Red Sox might play a series in London.